Tag Archives: crit

Mastery

Our Mastery has been completely revamped. Symbiosis has been replaced by Harmony. Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 15% and casting your direct healing spells grants you an additional 15% bonus to periodic healing for 10 sec. Each point of Mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%.

What does mean for you? Cast a direct heal (Swiftmend, Nourish, Healing Touch, Regrowth) every 10 seconds, get an increase to all your HoTs. Direct heals will be increased automatically. Drop the awful ‘heal chasing’ habit if you currently do that. Hopefully, this doesn’t require too much of a playstyle change for most druids. Between consistent Swiftmend use and using OoC procs for Regrowth or HT you’re likely (I hope) casting a direct heal close to every 10 seconds already.

If you cast Swiftmend on cooldown, you’ll only need to cast a single direct spell in between SM casts to ensure that Harmony is in effect all the time. Making a Power Aura to track this is a very good idea.

Crit

All healing critical strikes will now heal for 2x a normal heal (rather than 1.5x).

This is a nice little bonus, but it won’t really effect our playstyle in any way. It will however, make talents like Nature’s Bounty and Living Seed a little bit better. If these aren’t talents you normally take, they might be worth a second look.

Innervate

Innervate now causes the target to regenerate 5% of maximum mana over 10 sec. Still regenerates 20% of maximum mana on self cast.

This change kills the idea of Innervate swapping. You can now keep all your Innervates for yourself. Because of this, you may want to replace Glyph of Innervate with something else.

This spec has zero points in Moonglow or Furor, so you really need to have the appropriate gear, raid buffs and consumables to use this spec. This spec will put out the most HPS but will be hard to sustain.

This is a much safer spec. You get all three points in Moonglow and 2 in Furor – you’ll be able to sustain casting for much longer. In addition, there are two points in Perseverance, which will help keep you alive. If you like Nature’s Swiftness you can take a point away from Perseverance to get it.

If you want something in-between, play around with the optional talent points. For example, you could take the two points out of Furor and put them in Genesis.

Though 4.1 was released only a couple weeks ago, information and previews from 4.2 are already being released.

Mastery

The resto druid mastery is being completely revamped.

Our current mastery is Symbiosis. Symbiosis increases the potency of your healing spells by 11.6% on targets already affected by one of your heal over time spells. Each point of Mastery increases heal potency by an additional 1.45%.

Symbiosis (Mastery) has been removed and replaced with Harmony. Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 10%, and casting direct healing spells grants an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 seconds. Each point of mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%. Healing Touch, Nourish, Swiftmend, and the initial heal from Regrowth are considered direct healing spells for the purposes of this Mastery. All other healing from druid spells is considered periodic. (source)

Very interesting. Though the values have been slightly reduced, I think this new mastery qualifies as a buff. For tank healers there may not be too much of a difference, but for raid healers (which most druids are) I think this will be a big improvement. Rather than needing to have a pre-existing HoT on a target to benefit from increased healing, all you need to do is cast a direct healing spell every 10 seconds to get a boost to all your HoTs. Direct healing spells will be increased automatically. This sounds like a really nice change and it will increase the desirability of Mastery for raid healing druids. This really makes me wonder though…why do we keep getting buffed? Other than our lack of a damage mitigation cooldown, druids are not in any way lacking in the healing department. Between the 3 minute Tranquility cooldown from 4.1 and this mastery buff our output will be ridiculous. I can’t help but feel we’re being set up for major nerfs sometime in the future (I’m only paranoid because everyone is after me).

Tier 12 armor set

The possible set bonuses for Tier 12 have also been released.

2 Pieces – Your periodic healing from Lifebloom has a 40% chance to restore 1% of your base mana each time it heals a target.4 Pieces – When your Lifebloom blooms, it instantly heals up to 2 nearby injured targets for the same amount. (source) *This has been changed, see update below*

The 2 piece bonus is a bit boring, but will provide quite a lot of mana regen. My napkin math places this at approximately 370 mp5 assuming Lifebloom is always rolling. During ToL, when you can have multiple Lifeblooms up, it could be 2-3 times as much. This should more than make up for breaking our T11 4-piece bonus.

The 4 piece does not impress me. First of all, Lifebloom is rarely allowed to bloom. Aside from the mana you need to spend, you also need to spend 3 GCDs to stack it back up again. Though there will occasionally be a perfect storm of circumstances when Lifebloom is about to expire when the tank and 2 people near them need a chunk of health, it doesn’t usually work out that way. This bonus will be better while we’re in ToL and Lifeblooms can be tossed around and left to bloom, but it’s still a very awkward bonus.

My biggest complaint about Tier bonuses is that every single one in Cata has been a bonus to Lifebloom. I’d really like to see some of our other spells get a little love.

*Update* The 4 piece bonus has already been changed. It is now:

4 Pieces – Your Swiftmend also heals an injured target within 8 yards for the same amount.

I much prefer this bonus. The Lifebloom bonus would have been awkward and not terribly useful outside of ToL. The bonus to Swiftmend will be useful all the time. 8 yards isn’t a lot, but Swiftmend is generally used on someone in a group of people to spawn Efflorescence, so I think it will work out. It raises the question: will the second Swiftmend effect also spawn an Efflorescence? My gut feeling is no – that would be extremely OP…but a girl can dream.

Yesterday we got a partial preview of what the Tier 12 armor will look like.*Update* We have now seen a full preview of what the Tier 12 armor will look like:

For the most part the set it okay, but I have one word for the helmet: blech. The horns aren’t terrible, but the bark face mask? Ugly. I might have to make use of my hide helm option for the first time in years. Tier sets seem to be getting less druid-y. Where are the moons, the flowers and the animal-influenced gear?

Innervate

Innervate is being changed:

Innervate now causes the target to regenerate 5% of maximum mana over 10 sec. Still regenerates 20% of maximum mana on self cast. (source)

This pretty much kills the practice of Innervate swapping. I’m personally not used to playing with other resto druids so it doesn’t effect me too much, but I know other healers really enjoy swapping Innervates to give the most mana back to their raid as a whole. I guess all druids will now be keeping their Innervates for themselves, and Glyph of Innervate will no longer be used.

Crit

This isn’t a druid-specific change, but yesterday we also learned:

All healing critical strikes now heal for 2 times a normal heal (+100%), up from 1.5 times a normal heal (+50%). (source)

Finally, healers will get the same benefit from crit that everyone else does. This will make gearing in Tier 12 much more interesting. Between this change and our new mastery, I predict stat weights will be much more balanced than they currently are.

Overall, I think resto druids are looking really good for Tier 12 in terms of healing (though not in terms of aesthetics).

Here are the stats you will find on healing gear and what they do for you.

Stats

Stamina

Each point of Stamina gives you 10 health. Stamina is not a stat you have to look for. It will be present on all your gear. Your health will increase with your item levels.

Intellect

Each point of Intellect gives you:

1 spell power

17.53 mana

0.0015% critical strike chance

Intellect is the strongest stat for resto druids. It increases our mana pool, gives us thoroughput and increases the effects of mana regeneration that are based on mana pool (Innervate, Replenishment). Amount of intellect should be the first stat you look for on gear.

Spirit

Spirit increases mana regeneration, both in and out of combat. Your mp5 depends on both your spirit and intellect.

Haste

128.05 haste rating = 1% haste

Haste reduces the global cooldown (to a minimum of 1 second), reduces the time it takes to cast spells and can increase the number of times your HoTs tick. Haste is very important, especially to get in those extra ticks. See below for the chart of Haste Break Points.

Critical Strike Chance

179.28 crit rating = 1% critical strike chance

All your heals, including HoT ticks, are capable of critting. Critical heals heal for 1.5x the amount of normal heals. This is a lower priority stat for druids.

Mastery

The resto druid mastery is Symbiosis. It increases the potency of your healing spells when your target is already affected by one of your heal over time spells. All of your healing spells benefit from this, even other HoTs. How important Mastery is depends on your style of healing. If you are a tank healer, Mastery can be strong. However, if you are a raid healer, or if you infrequently cast spells on targets that already have a HoT on them, Mastery becomes less useful.

Spell Power

Spell power is only found on weapons. It effects the output of your spells.

Stat Priority

Intellect > Spirit > Haste > Critical Strike Chance = Mastery

Haste Break Points

With certain amounts of haste, you can squeeze in extra ticks of your HoTs. Each table below shows the amount of haste needed to get x extra ticks of each spell. There are two sets of values. First, if you do not have a 5% haste buff and second, if you do.

Lifebloom

Ticks

10

11

12

13

14

Without buff

base

640
(5%)

1921
(15%)

3202
(25%)

4482
(35%)

With buff

base

0
(5%)

1220
(9.5%)

2440
(19%)

3659
(28.6%)

Wild Growth

Ticks

7

8

9

10

Without buff

base

909
(7.1%)

2744
(21.4%)

4574
(35.7%)

With buff

base

256
(7.2%)

2004
(15.6%)

3746
(29.2%)

Rejuvenation

Ticks

4

5

6

Without buff

base

1601
(12.5%)

4803
(37.5%)

With buff

base

915
(7.2%)

3964
(35.7%)

Regrowth

Ticks

4

5

6

Without buff

base

2135
(16.6%)

6403
(50%)

With buff

base

1423
(11%)

5489
(42.95)

In order to get a 1 second GCD you would require 6403 haste without the 5% buff, or 5489 haste with it. This is not going to be possible with current gear.

So how much haste should you be looking for? First, figure out if you will consistently have a 5% haste buff in your raid group, and plan around that. Next, pick an attainable target. Here are the above tables organized a little differently to help you pick a good target.

Without 5% buff

Haste

Extra ticks

640

11th tick of LB

909

8th tick of WG

1601

5th tick of RJ

1921

12th tick of LB

2135

5th tick of RG

2744

9th tick of WG

3202

13th tick of LB

With 5% buff

Haste

Extra ticks

0

11th tick of LB

256

8th tick of WG

915

5th tick of RJ

1220

12th tick of LB

1423

5th tick of RG

2004

9th tick of WG

2440

13th tick of LB

3659

14th tick of LB

So, if you have the 5% buff 1423 haste could be an attainable goal that would give you 1 extra tick on Wild Growth, Rejuvenation and Regrowth and 2 extra ticks on Lifebloom. Gear for haste, and reforge others stats (crit or mastery) until you hit this number. Once you reach 1423, additional haste will be less useful to you until you can reach the next break point of 2004.

*Special thanks to Hamlet’s TreeCalcs spreadsheet which provides all the neccessary druid math*